Jason Lee Scott
Jason Lee Scott is a fictional character in the Power Rangers franchise, played by actor Austin St. John . Jason is best remembered as the original Red Ranger from the first entry of the franchise, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers , as well as the leader of the original team of Power Rangers. He later becomes the second Gold Ranger in Power Rangers Zeo. Background History Jason is a martial artist from the fictional town of Angel Grove, California. In the beginning of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, he is selected by Zordon and Alpha 5 , along with his closest friends Zack Taylor , Billy Cranston , Trini Kwan , and Kimberly Ann Hart , as the five "teenagers with attitude" to become the original Power Rangers and defend Earth from the forces of the evil Rita Repulsa . When Zordon first confronts the teens to give them their powers, Jason is the only one who initially believes him. Jason becomes the Red Power Ranger, is given the Power Coin of the Tyrannosaurus "Dinozord" (a type of Transformer-esque robot), obtains the Tyrannosaurus Dinozord, and is made the team leader. He leads the Rangers into many successful battles against Rita's monsters, establishing a rivalry with Rita's number one henchman Goldar . At first glance, Jason appears to be the stereotypical jock type, primarily interested in sports—particularly martial arts. Beneath the surface, however, he is big-hearted, outgoing, friendly, and always willing to help someone out when it is needed—such as when he takes Billy under his wing and teaches him martial arts to boost his confidence and teach him self-defense. Aside from martial arts, Jason is an accomplished athlete, weight trainer and certified scuba diving instructor. When Tommy Oliver is introduced, he becomes competitive rivals with Jason, matching him in a martial arts competition. Rita then manipulates Tommy, turning him into the evil Green Ranger, and sends him into battle. He later captures Jason, steals his Power Morpher and imprisons him in Rita's Dark Dimension where he would have to fight Goldar to retrieve his Morpher. The Green Ranger eventually arrives at the scene with orders to destroy Jason, however Billy, Trini, and Alpha manage to repair the damage Tommy did to the Command Center, in time to find Jason and retrieve him seconds before he is killed by Tommy. Later, Jason squares off with Tommy on Earth and ultimately defeats him when he hurls his energized Power Sword at the Green Ranger, disarming him, and then uses his Blade Blaster to destroy the Sword of Darkness that Rita had given to Tommy, due to the sword's ability to maintain her evil spell on him. Jason then convinces Tommy to join the team and use his powers against Rita. Later, Rita crafts a Green Candle out of special wax that had been enchanted with Tommy's touch when he was evil. Once lit, the candle continues to burn until it is gone, and when it is, so too would Tommy's powers. Because Tommy's proximity to the candle accelerates the candle's melting process, Tommy is captured and placed in its proximity by Goldar. However, he eventually escapes and Jason is left to retrieve the candle. Jason does well in his fight with Goldar, but is recalled into the battle with Rita's Cyclops monster in order to save Tommy's life. Following the failure of destroying the Green Candle, Tommy entrusts Jason with his Power Coin to prevent them falling into Rita's hands again, allowing him access to the Green Ranger's powers. This includes the Dragon Shield and the Dragon Dagger, which also allows him to call the Dragonzord to aid the Rangers, even while Jason controls the Megazord. One of Jason's most cunning moments is the gambit he plays against Goldar, who kidnaps the parents of Angel Grove High's students, then ransoms them for the Ranger's five Power Coins. Jason would later reveal that though he gave up his Tyrannosaurus Power Coin to Goldar, he kept the Dragon Power Coin. With it, Tommy eventually regains his Green Ranger powers, retrieves the other Ranger's Power Coins and helps the team save their captive parents. When Lord Zedd arrived and overruns Rita, he sends his new brand of Putty Patrollers to Earth. The Putties possess superior strength to Rita's Putties, but it is Jason who discovers their weak spot. In order to compete with their new enemy's more powerful monsters, the Dinozords are upgraded into the mythical Thunderzords; Jason's being the Red Dragon Thunderzord, which can transform into a humanoid form. As with the Tyrannosaurus, the Red Dragon is capable of defeating a monster on its own, separate from the Megazord formation. Eventually, Tommy loses his Green Ranger powers for good, and Jason suffers from immense guilt because of it. Choosing to capitalize on Jason's vulnerability, Zedd creates candles for Zack, Billy, Trini and Kimberly that would remove their links to the Morphing Grid, just as Rita did to Tommy. Jason, with the help of Zordon's confidence in him, manages to save his friends and prevent them from losing their powers. Following the victory, Jason wins a martial arts trophy and dedicates it to Tommy, who soon after returns as the White Ranger and is named the new leader of the team by Zordon. Tommy still heavily relied on Jason, as shown in White Light Part II , where he asked for Jason's help because he was struggling to defeat Nimrod the Scarlett Sentinel, Jason then comes to Tommy's aid and together with the other rangers they defeated the Nimrod. Some time later, Jason, Trini and Zack (after the actors playing the characters left the show over contract disputes) are chosen to act as ambassadors at a peace conference in Switzerland, and are forced to leave the team. Zordon chooses Rocky DeSantos to replace Jason as the Red Ranger.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Lee_Scott#cite_note-7 Jason returns in Power Rangers Zeo, temporarily taking over the powers of the Gold Zeo Ranger from Trey of Triforia when Trey is injured in a fight with Varox bounty hunters. Upon his return to the team he is also made second-in-command. His return is greatly welcomed by his old friends Tommy and Billy, and he quickly makes new friends out of the newer Rangers Adam Park , Katherine Hillard and Tanya Sloan . However, Rocky soon becomes disturbed by his teammates' love for Jason, as he feels he is being replaced by the Ranger he had replaced. After risking his life to prove himself to be worthy despite Jason's popularity, Rocky eventually accepts Jason as a friend and adopts the same jovial relationship with Jason that Rocky has with everyone else. When Tommy is kidnapped by Prince Gasket, Jason would step up as leader of the team once again until they were able to save Tommy and bring him back. Jason is also chosen by Tanya to become the guardian of Auric the Conqueror for a time. During Zeo, Tommy shows a deep dependence on Jason's advice when it comes to leadership decisions.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Lee_Scott#cite_note-8Jason returns the Gold Ranger powers to Trey in the final episode of Zeo when it is discovered that he cannot handle the powers much longer, as they are draining away - along with his own life force - due to the Gold Ranger powers not being intended for human physiology. However, there are no apparent long-term effects, and Jason appears perfectly healthy after the powers are transferred back to Trey. Jason and Kimberly both return in Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie.[13] They are first seen scuba diving together, but are then kidnapped by the villainess Divatox and are briefly brainwashed to fight against the Turbo Rangers. It appears that the evil influence enhanced his own negative aspects, as at one point he taunts Tommy with "Now I'm the one with the muscles and the power!". After being restored to normal by Lerigot, he once again fades into the background, with Jason's final appearance in the film being replacing the injured Rocky in a martial arts tournament and ultimately winning the match, alongside Tommy and Adam. Jason's final live-action appearance in the Power Rangers universe is in Power Rangers Wild Force, in the special episode "Forever Red," which celebrated the tenth anniversary of Power Rangers. In this special, he utilizes his original Red Ranger powers and joins nine other Red Rangers (which includes Tommy) to defeat the remnants of the Machine Empire, a force of villains that Jason had previously battled as the Gold Ranger. After the events of "Forever Red," Jason returns to living a normal life, though he presumably still retains his Red Ranger powers. Leadership with Tommy Oliver ason was highly respected during his time as leader of the Power Rangers, and is shown to have some of the best martial arts skills of the Rangers. Jason is also the only one to ever best Tommy in single combat when Tommy was still the much more powerful Green Ranger (although the two tie in a martial arts competition before Tommy becomes evil). Likewise, Tommy is the only Ranger ever to best Jason in combat as well. It is also hinted that Tommy still looks up to Jason as a great leader, when he asks Jason for leadership advice after Jason becomes the Gold Ranger, even though Jason is assumed to be second in command, during his temporary tenure as Gold Ranger. He also traded duties with Tommy during their MMPR season 1 and Zeo tenures with one as red and the other as 6th member. They also wore black after their respective tenures as Red Rangers, although for Jason, it was unofficial as the Gold Ranger suit was only a black colored suit, and the wearer is not officially a Black Ranger (although its Sentai version was officially a Black Ranger, preceded by NinjaBlack from Kakuranger, and succeeded by MegaBlack from MegaRanger. This may also go for former Blue and Red S.P.D. Ranger Sky Tate if he inherited the Shadow Ranger Powers from Doggie Cruger after Cruger leaves). Tommy would be considered the first former Red Ranger to later be an official Black Ranger. As A Ranger Trivia *According to a contest held by ABC Family in 2004, Jason was voted as the #1 Red Ranger of all time. A subsequent contest on Toon Disney in 2007 also voted him as the most popular Red Ranger. As stated at the first Power Morphicon, Jason still holds this title. *In "Forever Red", Jason is the field leader, while Tommy is the overall Leader. *Jason is the first Red Ranger who had a Tyrannosaurus Zord, followed by Eric Myers, who pilots the Q-Rex Zord, and Conner McKnight, who pilots a similar Red colored Tyrannosaurus theme Zord to Jason. *Jason is the first human Gold Ranger, followed by Daggeron from Mystic Force, and Gem from RPM. *Jason is the first Ranger leader to lose leadership of his team without retiring first. The second was Taylor Earhardt the Yellow Ranger of Power Rangers Wild Force. *Jason is the only leader of the Zordon Era to not lose one or more set of Zords.The Dinozords were upgraded into the Thunderzords, that were ultimately destroyed in " Ninja Quest " under the leadership of Tommy, while Jason was at the Peace Conference with Zack and Trini. This could also be expanded as, even though he was not the leader of the team, The Zeo Ranger Zords were also not destroyed, but replaced in favor of the Turbo Ranger powers and Zords, which were later destroyed under TJ Johnson's Leadership. *Rumors insist that an original shooting script for "Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie" had paired Jason and Kimberly as a couple. This would serve as an explanation as to why Kimberly's boyfriend from Florida mentioned on "Power Rangers Zeo" and Jason's love interest Emily from "Zeo" were not seen or mentioned in the "Turbo" film. It would also explain why Kimberly goes to Jason, not Tommy, to congratulate their win in the karate match at the finale of the film. While the romance was written out, Jason and Kimberly are very protective of each other in the film, and the concerned/loving glances the two give to one another remain in the film. However, Jason, not Tommy, mentions Kimberly in the finale of the "Power Rangers: Wild Force" episode "Forever Red", leading some fans to believe that a reason why Jason mentions Kim is because they are possibly now together as a couple or possibly married. *The role of Jason was originally auditioned, and won, by David Yost but David thought he didn't look the part of a leader so he was re-cast as Billy, with Austin hired in his place to portray Jason. *Jason Lee Scott is responsible for coining the term "Back to action!" when the Rangers, usually helmetless, would return to battle after some form of break. *Jason's birth date was listed as October 20th on both the profile card on the box of the 1993 eight-inch-tall Red Ranger toy and on the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers CD-Rom. This gives him the same birthday as his teammate Tommy Oliver. *Jason has the distinct honor of having the only founding cast member of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" to share the same first name of his character. In real life, Austin St. John revealed at the 2007 Power Morphicon that Austin is his stage name and that his real name is Jason Geiger. *Jason is one of the two founding Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to wear the Green Ranger's Dragon Shield chest armor on the show. The only other Ranger to wear Green Ranger's shield is Jason's other closest friend, Zack. Photo Gallery Behind the Scenes *Jason Lee Scott was portrayed by St. John in all of his television and film appearances, and by Yuri Lowenthal in the video game Power Rangers: Super Legends.[12] *By the time the episode "Opposites Attract" aired, Austin St. John, Walter Jones, and Thuy Trang had already quit Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The reason being contract disputes, since the actors were underpaid due to the nonunion status of the company at the time. However, the characters of the actors still appeared in several of the following episodes, until they were written out in " The Power Transfer " story arc. Up until then, stock footage from past episodes of Jason, Zack, and Trini were used. Also, from " Missing Green " until "The Power Transfer", when the characters were given dialogue to speak, usually while they were morphed, voices were cast to dub the lines in. The series' associate producer Paul F. Rosenthal performed the voice of Jason in his final appearances. This is also why Tommy was given leadership powers before Jason left the team. The producers wanted to transition between Jason and Tommy before Jason was written out of the show, along with Zack and Trini. *Jason was once considered to be the Black Dino Ranger in Power Rangers: Dino Thunder, but due to Tommy Oliver's popularity - Tommy was chosen instead. MMPR1_pilot_Jason_Morphing.jpg|Jason's morph shot from the unaired pilot. 300px-MMPR1_Jason_Morphing.jpg|Jason's main morph shot for s1-2. 200px-Jason_morph.jpg|Jason's morph shot in Zeo as the Gold Ranger. 300px-Red_Ranger_with_Dragon_Dagger_Shield.jpg|Red Ranger with Green's Dragon armor/dagger. 3576654_std.jpg BladeBlaster1.jpg|Jason with his Blade Blaster. zyuranger1a.JPG|Jason with Zack in morphed form. PowerSword2.JPG|Jason with his Power Sword. l_2cafade91a624e7e8ae3d17f6d249bf7.png l_5f36f79c64ec498286007a1ed0f9198d.jpg|Jason in "Forever Red", morphed. AAAADAzpCEYAAAAAANx11Q.jpg Charged_Sword_1_MMPR.jpg Category:Rangers Category:Mighty Morphin Power Rangers